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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22486291">Pie: #17</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisentis/pseuds/Ignisentis'>Ignisentis</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>32 Ways To Say I Love You [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Idiots in Love, Implied Oral Sex, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, pie!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:35:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,666</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22486291</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisentis/pseuds/Ignisentis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky's trials and tribulations as he learns how to bake a pie.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>32 Ways To Say I Love You [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>150</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pie: #17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one is for Jen. I hope your days start brightening, my dear.</p><p>You can find me on <a href="https://twitter.com/Ardeospina">Twitter</a> if you want to come yell about soft boys being soft.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“I seriously have no idea how they do that,” Bucky tells Steve as they’re curled up on the couch together watching “The Great British Baking Show” reruns. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lots of practice,” Steve replies. “And magic, probably.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky snorts, but sometimes he does wonder. “I’m gonna,” he declares.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re gonna what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna learn to bake.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay!” Steve enthuses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky snorts again. Of course he’s excited. He’s going to be the recipient of all Bucky’s baked goods. “You have to promise to eat whatever I make you, though, and no making fun of me when it’s terrible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Buck,” Steve says, suddenly all serious. “You know I wouldn’t do that. Not like I’d have a leg to stand on anyway. I’m shit at baking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky sighs at himself. He does know. “I do know. I’m just…” he trails off and shrugs. Thankfully, Steve gets it and just leans in to give him a kiss, letting the subject drop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What are you going to make first?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think pie. I love pie. Crust from scratch sounds like a good challenge.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds perfect, baby.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky hums at him, and they both settle back in to watch the rest of the episode.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, Bucky has Jarvis compile the best pie recipes he can find, as well as some baking tips, and he spends a few hours going through everything, reading it over a few times to make sure he understands. Well, understands as well as someone who’s never baked really can. He thinks some of the tips and methods go over his head, but he’s sure he’ll master them once he tries them. He’s the goddamn Winter Soldier. How hard can it be to make a pie?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He settles on apple for his first pie to take the piss out of Steve a little bit and heads to the store for the ingredients. He makes the crust first when he gets home, then cores, slices, and peels all the apples so he can make the pie filling. He tries for a lattice on top, but holy shit, that’s harder than it looks, so he just sort of twists some strips of crust and calls it good enough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He steps back to survey his work, and actually, it’s not bad. Not bad at all!! He puts the pie in the oven and lies down on the couch, dicking around on his phone until the pie is done cooking. An hour and a half later, he snorts awake and smells something burning. Fuck, his pie!!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He rushes to the kitchen and opens the oven, waving his hand in front of his face to try and clear the smoke billowing from the oven. Yeah, that is a burned pie. He pulls it out anyway, setting it on a trivet on the counter to cool. He turns the oven off, sighing at himself. Well. At least he’s learned a valuable lesson about setting timers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Steve comes home, he’s immediately concerned, Bucky can hear it in his voice when he calls out “Bucky?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In the kitchen!” he calls back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” Steve asks, sprinting into the kitchen. “It smells like...oh,” he says when he sees the burnt pie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I forgot to set a timer.” Steve is fighting </span>
  <em>
    <span>very hard </span>
  </em>
  <span>to keep himself from smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s...I’m sorry, Buck, that must be frustrating after all the work you did to put the pie together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky nods, playing it up a little. The truth is, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> frustrated. Now, though, he looks at the burned pie and just thinks it’s funny. “I burned my pie, Steve,” he says, with an exaggerated lip wobble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve catches on, clutching at a set of invisible pearls as he says dramatically, and with a Southern accent for some reason, “what a tragedy, I’m sure!” Except it sounds like “shoo-ah” the way he says it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky giggles and nods. “It is, it’s the greatest tragedy of my lifetime, and I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>distraught.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve gasps and places the back of his hand on his own forehead. “Oh! Oh, if only there were some way I could help you in your time of need!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky giggles again. God, this adorable </span>
  <em>
    <span>dweeb!</span>
  </em>
  <span> “A blowjob would help,” he says with a straight face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I do declare!” Steve says, slinking closer to the chair Bucky’s sitting in. “My delicate sensibilities!” he cries, folding to his knees in front of Bucky, who giggles a third time. Steve meets his eyes and says, “yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky shrugs and nods, making a little “you’re already down there” gesture with his hand. That makes Steve smile and exclaim, “well, I suppose I shall, if it will help the pie effort.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time Bucky’s giggle quickly turns into a moan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crust on his second pie is disgusting and greasy, and Bucky realizes he didn’t keep his fat cold. Son of a bitch. Bucky cuts it into strips and uses it to practice his lattice work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The third pie looks pretty good, though: the crust is nice and flaky, the filling a perfect color, the lattice crust an actual lattice. It’s cooling on the counter when Steve gets home, and he can’t wait for Steve to taste a slice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve’s eyes go wide when he sees it. “Bucky, this looks incredible!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky bounces up on the balls of his feet. “Doesn’t it? I kind of can’t believe it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t wait to try it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“After dinner. It just came out of the oven and needs to cool and settle for a little bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve practically inhales his dinner he’s so excited to try Bucky’s pie, which normally would be gross — honestly, Steve, chewing is important — but Bucky just finds it sweet tonight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When it’s finally pie time, Bucky cuts them each a slice and watches to see Steve take the first bite. Bucky watches intently as he raises the fork to his lips and puts the pie in his mouth and immediately...oh. He immediately puckers his lips. That’s not right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve chews the bite and swallows it, but he doesn’t look particularly happy. He’s trying to school his face, but he shouldn’t have to do that. Something is wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it?” Bucky asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...did you try the filling?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, no. “No? Am I supposed to do that before I put it in the pie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…” Steve hedges. Bucky picks up his own fork and takes a bite, and it is disgusting. Holy shit. He leans over his plate, spitting it out before looking up at Steve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I used salt instead of sugar,” he says, and Steve’s eyes go wide. Bucky can see him biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “Steve, I used salt! What the fuck?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve is really working hard now to not laugh at Bucky, but honestly, it is fucking funny, so Bucky takes pity on him and starts laughing at himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Salt!” Steve wheezes, and that’s it, they’re both laughing now. Steve even literally slaps his knee at one point, which sets Bucky off even more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They laugh until they’re both crying, and when he’s finally all laughed out, Bucky wipes the tears from his eyes and says, “tomorrow I’m gonna get it right.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Steve says around a smile. “You are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thing is, he does. He totally fucking nails the next pie he makes: the crust is golden and flaky and baked to perfection, the filling sweet and delicious and not salty, the lattice on top is clean and sharp. It looks perfect, and he cannot wait for Steve to try it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waits until it cools some before slicing a piece and taking it to Steve in his office. He’s been working all day on some paperwork or consulting thing or...actually, Bucky’s not sure what he’s working on. He kind of zoned out when Steve told him. Whatever, he’s coming with a perfect slice of pie, so he’s sure that more than makes up for it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He uses his foot to knock on the bottom of Steve’s office door since his hands are full with two plates of pie. “Yeah!” Steve calls out to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you open the door, please? My hands are full,” Bucky says back, and he hears some papers shuffling before Steve gets up and does just that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pie!” Bucky exclaims, and Steve’s face lights up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bucky, that looks amazing!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, right?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sit back down at Steve’s desk, Steve in his office chair and Bucky in one he pulls up from across the room. Steve puts a bite on his fork and raises it up in front of him. “To you,” he toasts, “and your journey to pie perfection.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky rolls his eyes but smiles, replying “you better taste it before you declare it perfect. I’m sure I found yet another way to mess up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah,” Steve says, his smile fond. “I know you got it right this time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>God, </span>
  </em>
  <span>sometimes Steve’s unwavering belief in him cuts him right to his core. He has no idea what he ever did to earn such devotion from a man like Steve, but he sure as hell is going to do everything in his power to be worthy of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ohhhh, fuck,” Steve moans, and Bucky immediately snaps out of his own thoughts at</span>
  <em>
    <span> that </span>
  </em>
  <span>sound. “Bucky, this is so </span>
  <em>
    <span>good!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” Bucky asks shyly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, holy shit,” Steve tells him, mouth full of pie. What a disgusting dork, he’s the </span>
  <em>
    <span>best. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky picks his own fork back up and takes a bite, and holy shit, Steve was not kidding! “Steve,” Bucky says in disbelief, “Steve, I did it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Steve beams at him. “You sure did, pal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bucky beams back then goes in for another bite. They’re both silent as they finish off their slices. Steve leans back in his chair and pats his belly a few times. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Race you for a second slice,” Bucky says, shouting “cheater!” when Steve bursts out of his chair and starts sprinting to the kitchen ahead of him.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Pie!!! So I've never actually made pie crust from scratch, but I did look into it some, and now I want to try.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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